Vacation
by BlackRoseApocalyps
Summary: Michael and Marianne decide to take a much needed vacation COMPLETE
1. Packing

Disclaimer: I only own Marianne/Fantasy, Michael/Gun, Sarah/Gaia, Ben/Nova, Tank, Devon, Bridget, Jonathan, Ezra, Samantha, Connor, C and Luka (damn, lotta OC's). I do not own X-Men: Evolution, hell, right now I don't even own money! Anything else is mine unless otherwise stated, and what is new, but not mine, will be put at the beginning of the chapter in which it is, above replies to reviewers.  
  
Agent-G (last chapter FD): yeah well, him not asking was me putting it of because I didn't think I'd do any good on that. And they are gonna get 'hitched' later, as in not-this-story-later. ;) I'm trying out the romance-bit in this story, ain't too good at that, though.  
  
A/N: this is the third part of Mutant Underground Universe, this will be a short story, about 10 chapters, read Just a Girl and Fighting Destiny first to get to know my OC's, reference in this chapter to Agen-G's story Reality Trip, chapter 13.

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_**Vacation - Packing**_  
  
Michael was watching her pack, a grin on his face. Marianne had been out of the hospital bed three days after he had asked her to marry him. Hank had been, well, astounded that she had managed to get away. Everyone was currently joking at how eager she had been to get out of the hospital wing while it was where she worked.  
  
When they had told everyone about their engagement the common and only response was: finally! Well, that and Rogue, Luka and Sarah had threatened them that if they even dared to elope that they would be hunted down and forced to have the grandest reception anyone had ever seen. That was enough threat not to go through with that plan.  
  
Now they were finally able to go on vacation: Marianne had been given the green light by Luka, indicating she was now once again strong enough to travel. It was time, Michael thought, after all they had been through they deserved a long time off. The safehouse would be led by Sarah and Tank, Luka had been fully installed as the doctor and a teacher for the children would be brought in the coming week.  
  
Marianne was still pale, but during the month since the dimensional problem, she had gotten a lot of colour back. Her bandages were gone and indeed there was some scarring on her arms, most of them pretty small, a couple on the inside were easily noticable. Still she refused to wear longsleaves, not that it bothered Michael, not at all, she didn't want to cover them up and Michael didn't know why.  
  
"Do you have to pack that much? It's not like we'll be gone for years," Michael finally objected when she was stuffing her third suitcase.  
  
"Because you just went and said that, mister, I am going to pack for a decade. What was it you said after Vincent and his friends left? I believe it was, and I quote 'like that could ever happen to us'. And what did we do? We went to another dimension, AGAINST our will and even WITHOUT Forge's 'help'. From now on, Michael, you are FORBIDDEN to make any predictions like that," Marianne turned around and glared at him.  
  
"Yeah... well... no comment," he began to back away from Marianne, slowly.  
  
"No comment... no comment indeed. If I hear another comment like that I'll give 'm one of mine," Marianne muttered while forcefully closing the last of her suitcases. Michael couldn't help but chuckle.  
  
"O, you think this is funny?" she turned around again, "let's see how funny it is when you say 'come on Anne, it's not like all the air can be gone just like that'. Let's see how much fun it is to suffocate, because I am about to strangle you!"  
  
"You don't mean that, Anne," Michael grinned at her.  
  
"No... I don't. How much I'd love to mean it, I don't. Do you have everything?" Marianne let go of trying to scold him: it was no use.  
  
"I was ready before you even started," Michael raised his left eyebrow and crossed his arms.  
  
"Yeah yeah, but just don't come to me when you run outta clean clothes," Marianne mock glared at him, then grabbed her suitcases and followed Michael out, slapping him with on of her suitcases when he tried to help her carry them.  
  
When they made it to the garden belonging to the safehouse, they found Tank, Sarah, Ben, Luka, Jonathan, Samantha, Ezra and Connor waiting for them.  
  
"I'm gonna miss you all so much," Marianne dropped her suitcases when Samantha latched herself onto Marianne.  
  
"Ezra wants you to know she's already missing you," Connor smiled at the illusion-summoner.  
  
"Aw, sweetie, We'll come back. We just need a break after everything that's happened and I really wanna see my brother again. Now, you all help out Tank, Sarah, Ben and Luka and keep 'm in line, okay?" Marianne smiled at her 'kids'.  
  
"The scary part is," Jonathan snorted, "you're not joking."  
  
"That's what has me worried to. Now, Tank and Sarah are no longer allowed in the kitchen together, we can't ask for another kitchen, Ben has been banned from any and all vehicles without supervision, Underground practically goes broke replacing all our cars. Jonathan, if I find out you've been blinding people again, I'll let Marianne think up a punishment. Luka, are you sure that you're okay being the only sane adult in the bunch?" Michael looked around.  
  
"I wouldn't be too sure about me being the only sane one of the adults, I've been known to get a little weird once in a while," Luka grinned broadly.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Tank asked, mock offended.  
  
"Just what Michael said, moron, we're all wacky here. Especially you!" Sarah hit him over the head.  
  
"Yeow! Wouldcha stop that?!" Tank pretended to be hurt, he always did that. Even though he was practically invulnerable.  
  
"I'm already having doubts," Michael groaned as he saw that the two were near ready to get into a fight.  
  
"NO!" Luka quickly pulled the two apart and held them seperated by their ears, "you two go and have fun. If I need to, I'll send for some back-up. We'll be fine. You two deserve a vacation."  
  
"Okay," Marianne got her suitcases again, "I'll send you an e-mail every week and if you need us, you know how to reach us."  
  
"Yes mom, and we won't have any parties, won't have women come over and won't get drunk, okay?" Ben joked.  
  
"This is beginning to become a very bad idea," Marianne clasped one hand over her eyes, "PROMISE me you'll at least try to behave."  
  
"Ofcourse they'll behave, come Anne, let's get going," Michael directed one glare at his friends before moving Marianne to the van they would be using. They threw their bags and suitcases in the back, Michael got behind the wheel and Marianne said her last goodbyes to the kids and the, sorta, adults.  
  
"Ready to go?" Michael asked her as she got into the van.  
  
"I guess," Marianne sighed wistfully, "it just... I don't feel comfortable leaving them on their own. I just know Ben will have blown up the entire safehouse, Tank and Sarah will have wrecked what was left of it and a couple of other catastrophies will happen. I'm being an over-concerned mom, ain't I?"  
  
"I'd be lying if I said no, but they're no little kids, Anne, and they've had a year to get their act together. I say: let's let them prove themselves. And otherwise: we have Connor, Ezra, Jonathan and Samantha to keep 'm in line," Michael tried to reassure her and started the car.  
  
"Yeah, you're right. But I like taking care of them. Even though they can be a major pain in the neck. But I still can't wait to see Devon again," she looked out of the window, the van began to speed up a little and the landscape seemed to blur. Marianne smiled sadly, she would have to tell Michael one of these days what had happened in the vortex. Just not now. One of these days, while on the road. She would tell him. He wouldn't judge her for it, he'd say something like 'sometimes we have no choices in what we do, we still feel the pain, and that proves us we still care. As long as you care, you'll be fine'. He had told her that when she had explained everything about who she had killed.  
  
Michael glanced at Marianne from the corner of his eyes and saw the sad expression on her face. She was thinking about the vortex again. He placed one hand on her shoulder and squeezed, her head whipped around to face him.  
  
"We'll be fine, Anne, nothing you did can change what I feel and I know you feel that too, in you heart," he looked at her, almost willing the sadness out of her eyes. He hated to see that in her eyes, the should be shining with joy, sparkling with mischief or burning with anger. They should not be sad.  
  
"I know, Michael, I know. I just feel bad about what happened. And I kinda miss Emily. She was rude, but she kept me busy," the sadness faded a little, but that was good enough. For now, at least. 


	2. Talking about it

Agent-G: yeah, I always like her chewing someone out too, but that's because I love to do it myself.  
  
Red-Witch (review last chapter Just a Girl): thanks, glad you liked it!  
  
Red-Witch (review last chapter Fighting Destiny): either you're a really fast reader or something is going on here I have no knowledge of. Lol. For thanks see reply above ;). I don't mind the not-review part, I like reviews, but I wouldn't stop writing if no one reviewed.  
  
A/N: this chapter isn't too funny, Marianne is dealing with what happened in the vortex, and nope, that's not too funny. Next chapter will be again. And there is, once again, a reference to Agent-G's Reality Trip, chapter 13.

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_**Vacation - Talking about it**_  
  
They had been on the road now for a week, stopping a lot, though. The whole idea of the vacation was relaxing a little. But Marianne was jumpy now, it was evening and she had decided it was time to talk with Michael about what exactly had happened in the vortex. Especially now that she had started to wake up screaming from her nightmares, waking Michael up along with her.  
  
She was gratefull that he wasn't pushing her, giving her her time. She guessed that was why they worked so well as a couple: even though they were opposite in many things, they knew eachother very well and knew when to stop asking and to accept.  
  
"Anne, I think the food is cut small enough to become liquid," Michael joked as he noticed that Marianne was still cutting up her food, "is there something you need to talk about?"  
  
"I... yes, Michael, I need to talk about something. It's... it's just a little difficult, ya know? Something happened in the... in the vortex that scared me. Badly," she shoved her plate away, feeling a little sick now she thought about the vortex again, the pain, not being in control, killing that entity that had been nothing more then a child.  
  
Michael somehow managed to keep his face and voice neutral. He had been waiting for her to open up to him about that.  
  
"You're sure? You don't have to tell me if you're not ready," Michael motioned her to sit down next to him on his couch. They were eating in the back of the van.  
  
"Michael... I... I killed again," Marianne sat down next to him, tears already shining in her eyes.  
  
"What? How... why?" he looked at her, alarmed, recalling what she had once said to him: 'if I were to kill again, I... I don't think I could live with myself, I think I would die'.  
  
"I... I don't know how it happened. It just... I must have blacked out when I entered the vortex. When I woke up... I... I wasn't me. I was part of someone, a child. O god, it hurt so much, Micheal. It hurt so much in there, even breathing hurt! I just wanted it to end, even if I died, but the entity, it just kept going," she felt tears run over her face as she rubbed over the scars on her arm, as if trying to smooth them away, as if trying to get what had happened out of her memory.  
  
Michael snatched her hands, if she kept this up, she would hurt herself and that was one of the last things he wanted.  
  
"Anne, calm down a little, you're not in there, you're here with me and it won't happen again," he said in a soothing voice.  
  
"It was just... it was just a kid, Michael! And the look in its eyes... just like the kids from the labs. As if he wanted to ask me why this happened. I didn't want to kill it, Michael, you have to believe me! I didn't," she was sobbing by now.  
  
"I believe you, Anne, but believe me now: you weren't in control, and you saved an entire dimension. I'm not even gonna begin to try and give a number to the lives," Michael looked at her, urging her to believe him.  
  
"Yeah, whoopie, and I prove once again how weak I am. It's my body! I should be in control! Not some personality of which I'm part of," Marianne looked at him.  
  
"Perhaps we should go and talk with Xavier, have him have a look," Michael carefully offered.  
  
"NO!" she jumped up and clenched her fists, starting to pace around, "No. Do you think I even wanna be near a telepath right now?! I know he wouldn't do that, Jean wouldn't do that. But... I just ... I can't Michael. Not now," she shook her head, starting to rub her scars again.  
  
"Okay, then we won't go. It's your call Anne," Michael kept the hurt carefully out of his voice: he was supposed to make sure she didn't get hurt! And looking at her, he knew just how badly she had been hurt, physically and mentally. He got up to pull her down into his lap and wrapped his arms around her, at least there she would be safe.  
  
"And the scars... I don't cover them because... because they will always remind me of the two children who... who died in the vortex. The entity I was part of and the... the other," she burried her face in his neck and silently cried for them.  
  
Michael didn't really know what to do. He wanted to help her, to tell her that she wasn't a murderer, that she wasn't weak, but he knew it would have no effect: she had to get to that point by herself. That was the only way she could get to that point.  
  
"Thanks... thanks Michael," she whispered against his shoulder, suddenly feeling very exhausted.  
  
"Sleep, Anne, go to sleep," Michael whispered in return, feeling her exhaustion from telling the story. He felt silent tears seeping through his shirt as Marianne slowly drifted off into an exhausted, deep sleep.  
  
Darkness of the night came and swallowed their van, the only sound Michael heard was Marianne's steady breathing.  
  
"I'm sorry, Anne, so sorry," he began to whisper, "I promised that I'd make sure you wouldn't have to go through that again. I guess I failed ya big time, huh? I just... I wish you would realize that you're not a killer. You scare me sometimes, you get so swallowed up by your work you forget to eat, sleep. You don't have to make up for anything. I'm afraid to lose you, Anne, if what happened when I thought so is any indication, I would never outlive you for very long."  
  
Silence took reign again as Michael calmed himself. He was damned afraid of losing her.  
  
Michael grinned wryly when he remembered the girls he used to date: all of them tough and fighters. He wouldn't have given a girl like Marianne a second glance. Deeming her as the kind of girl that would scream and run when they faced a spider. Okay, in Marianne's case she did not like spiders, but usually used one of her shoes to kill them.  
  
Then why had he fallen for her? He remembered how he felt when boys came to take her out, Joey had to keep him from scaring them off. Now he knew that it had been jealousy. He had slowly began to realise that even though Marianne didn't look tough, she was. Just in a complete different direction then the girls he knew. Like when she had spend days trying to track down Connor and Ezra and invite them into their house. It had taken her three days, and he knew for sure she had only slept in classes during the day.  
  
Ofcourse there was also the part of the pale, vulnerable girl Underground had dropped of on their doorstep, because she had been very insecure at first, and that had irritated the hell out of Michael. But he could understand it: she had been through a lot, didn't have a past and was dropped of to live with two boys she didn't know, at all. So that had also made him a bit more open to her.  
  
"You have saved and helped a lot of people, Anne, you have to remember that, no matter what. You're no killer, no murderer. If you were, you wouldn't feel like how you feel now," he softly whispered into her hair, not wanting to wake her up.  
  
Absently, Michael wondered how Devon would react to his sister's engagement. The man was protective of her, it had, quite frankly, surprised Michael Devon had allowed him to date her. He didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Shadow, he wouldn't mind doing it to Shadow, he minded doing it to Devon. He was, after all, Marianne's brother.  
  
Shadow, that would be fun to tell him that Marianne and Michael were getting married. Michael grinned at the thought of fighting the idiot once again. Ofcourse it had also been fun to watch Vincent give him a proper introduction to the training room.  
  
Now that he thought of it, would there be a Vincent in this dimension? And if so, where would he be? Probably in Canada, Michael thought, he hadn't seen a file on him, however, perhaps he hadn't exposed himself yet. The possibilities were endless.  
  
"Life was a lot easier without the dimensional crap," Michael softly decided. Marianne murmured something he couldn't really translate.  
  
"I'll take that as a yes," Michael smiled, before yawning himself, he was tired too, he glanced at the young woman in his arms, but decided against moving her: he would only wake Marianne up, and she needed her sleep. So he made himself comfortable on the couch in the back of the van.  
  
"I just hope neither of us fall off of the couch," he chuckled, looking at the sleeping Marianne, "that would be one hell of a wake-up call, which I would rather miss." 


	3. Reunion

Agent-G: yay! Long review! That line you wrote is very, very strong and deep. The whole problem for Marianne is the fact that she is a doctor, and yet she has killed. And I think that it wouldn't be normal to not let her be bothered or let her get over it real quick, I want her to be at least slightly human. Man, I thought I read fast, but I think Red Witch can run circles around me with reading!  
  
A/N: I was soooo busy this week! Unbelievable.  
  
A/N: I got specific permission from Agent-G to use his character Vincent in this story, and from now on, there is a Vincent in this reality. Yay!

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Vacation - Reunion  
  
"I told you that we needed gas," Marianne was currently scolding Michael. Their van had stopped moving not far from a town in the neighbourhood of Toronto. Ofcourse, lack of gas tended to do that to any kind of vehicle that actually worked on gas.  
  
That was fixed now, but ofcourse Marianne wouldn't be Marianne if she didn't tell Michael exactly what she thought about it.  
  
"And you have been telling me that for about an hour now. Give it a rest, would ya? If all things, you should be blaming Ben, he was supposed to make sure everything worked and NOTHING indicated we were out of gas," Michael retorted.  
  
"Yeah... well... Ben isn't here right now, and you are, don't look at me like that!" Marianne crossed her arms and tried to glare at him, failing miserably and collapsed into a fit of giggles.  
  
Michael rolled his eyes: his glaring never seemed to work on Marianne, it only served to have her break down in giggles. He was glad to see her laugh, though. She hadn't been doing that enough lately, he thought, but could very well understand that.  
  
"If you're done," he said, sounding amused, "could you get up so we can buy some food for today?"  
  
"Yeah... I'm done. You just look so funny when you try to glare at me, it's completely non-impressive," she giggled a little but composed herself again, "it's much more convincing when you glare at others."  
  
Michael raised his left eyebrow, but refraimed from saying anything as they began to walk towards the stores to get some food. Before they got there, however, Marianne was attacked by a fast, purple blur.  
  
"Mommy! Mommy!" the blur cried out as Marianne fell, when she found that her 'attacker' had latched onto both her legs. Luckily Michael managed to catch her.  
  
"C?" Marianne looked confused at the purple haired girl, "C, would ya let go of my legs please?"  
  
"Mommy! I'm so happy you're here! Did you fight the bad guy? Ya beat him, right? Right?" C let go of Marianne's legs and started jumping up and down, impatiently waiting for an answer.  
  
"Uhm," Marianne looked at the young girl, not really knowing what to say. She didn't want to tell her what really happened: the girl would surely fear her.  
  
"There wasn't really a bad guy, C," Michael came to her rescue, "it was more like a couple of things started to happen and Marianne stopped it."  
  
"See! I told them so! I told them that mommy and daddy would fix everything and make everything right," C spoke confidently.  
  
Marianne exchanged a look with Michael, before turning to the four year old: "C, are you out here by yourself? Do you live here?"  
  
"Uhuh and yep. I was bored and then I saw you and I wanted to say hi and now I'm here," C nodded eagerly.  
  
"Don't you think who ever is taking care of you is worried about you?" Marianne squatted in front of her.  
  
"Yeah, I think so," C casted her gaze downwards and began to fidget, "I did bad, didn't I?"  
  
"Not bad, you just should have told someone where you're going," Michael smiled at her, "but we're very happy to see you too, C. Now, let's get you home, allright?"  
  
C nodded at that, and held her hands up, indicating she wanted to be carried (A/N: I know a 5-year-old who still wants to be carried, so this is fine). Marianne obliged and picked the four year old up. From there on, the girl gave directions to where she now lived. Michael strongly suspected they were getting the grand-tour, and Marianne put her down after a while. Finally, they reached an old house, and a boy, about fifteen years old, immediately came up to them.  
  
"C! Where were you?! Vincent has been looking all over for you!" he scolded the girl before turning to Marianne and Michael, "thank you for bringing her back. Who are you?" he looked at them suspiciosuly.  
  
"Mommy and daddy!" C said, as if that would explain it all.  
  
"I'm Michael Johnson and this is Marianne Jong. We ran the place from where C was brought here, we're with the Underground," Michael calmly explained, but looked at Marianne as she tapped his arm: "what?"  
  
"Vincent, ring any bells?" she said, looking urgingly at him.  
  
"Uhm, o yeah, right. You think? This Vincent, does he have black hair? Light blue eyes? Good fighter?" Michael asked the boy, wondering if they were talking about the same guy.  
  
"Yes, that's him? Why?" the boy looked at them, while taking a defensive stance.  
  
"Something going on here? Rick?" Marianne heard a familiar voice behind her, she turned around and yelped: it was indeed Vincent, only a bit older.  
  
"Vince! This is my mommy and daddy!" C skidded up to the black haired man. He simply raised an eyebrow and looked at the two.  
  
"Not like that," Marianne began to explain, "I'm Marianne Jong, this is Michael Johnson. We ran the safehouse C came from. The ones who staid."  
  
She knew they had gotten a bit of a reputation because of that: they had gone directly against Underground's orders and had proven that what the Seeers saw wasn't what had to happened. She could see, however, that Vincent wasn't all that convinced.  
  
"If you run a relocation house, you should have the ability to get our files. I understand that you're being cautious, but we are who we say we are," Michael stepped forward, placing his hand on Marianne's shoulder.  
  
"They know you, big brother," the boy Vincent had called Rick stated.  
  
"Yeah, well, that's kinda complicated. Let's just say we got a visit from the you in another dimension," Marianne smiled sheepishly.  
  
"Come again?" Vincent blinked.  
  
"This is gonna be a looong talk," Michael warned the younger man.  
  
"I think I can squeeze it in," Vincent told them before turning to the kids again, "Rick you take the others to the back, okay?"  
  
Rick nodded and urged C and the other two kids who had come out into the garden with him to the backyard.  
  
"All right, I need some explanations, and I need them now," Vincent turned around and looked at the both of them.  
  
"You had better sit down for this one," Marianne warned him, grinning broadly.  
  
- = About and hour later = -  
  
"Wow," Vincent exchanged glances between Marianne and Michael, "That is just creepy. You're telling me that I'm living with the X-Men in another dimension?"  
  
"Uhuh," Marianne nodded as Michael rubbed his shin: she had kicked him under the table when Michael had been about to tell him that the Vincent from the other dimension was dating Rogue. And for someone who couldn't fight, she sure as hell could kick.  
  
"Now, that's another point of view on life," Vincent ran his fingers through his hair while going over the information Marianne and Michael had just given him.  
  
"It's been great, Vincent, but we should be going back to our van and get settled for the night," Michael began to rise from his chair.  
  
"You're sleeping in a van? You can spend the night here, if you want. We have a spare bedroom," Vincent quickly offered.  
  
Marianne perked up at that: they had been sleeping on the couches in the van for a couple of days now, and a real bed sounded like pure heaven to her right about now. She was not the type who could sleep anywhere, anytime, well, unless it was in the hospital-wing.  
  
"I think Marianne would do me bodily harm if I refused it. Thanks, Vincent, we'll make it up to you," Michael laughed at Marianne's excitement.  
  
"It's nothing, just invite me to the wedding, okay?" Vincent smiled at the couple, "besides, I think someone is very happy to have you two here."  
  
He turned around and directed attention to the purple haired four year old who was peaking from behind the door.


	4. Haunted

Agent-G: Thanks, and, yes, I was planning on having Vincent help her. I liked C so much in FD, that I decided to put her here too.  
  
A/N: SORRY! School's been a major pain in the neck, once again. This is a short update to let you all know I'm still very much alive, I'm the final weeks of school, and to be honest: it only gets harder! One week of normal classes and then 9 days of tests, and only tests. Hopefully I'll pull through and get into my final year before I go to University.  
  
_**Vacation - Haunted**_  
  
Marianne shot up, barely managing to not cry out in pure terror. She looked next to her and let out a sigh in relief: he was still there!  
  
"In one piece, not dead, thank god, not dead," she breathed to herself while trying to calm her heartbeat. This one had been the one she hated the most: she killed those scientists, but when she looked again, they were her friends. She would see the mutants captured, but they would turn into everyone she held close to her heart.  
  
Michael was still sound asleep, but the terror of the nightmare coursed freshly through Marianne's veins, making it impossible for her to return to sleep. Quietly, she got out of bed and got dressed for the coming day, making sure not to disturb Michael. Old jeans and T-shirt, she decided.  
  
Softly, she made her way to where the kitchen was, rubbing over her, still half closed eyes, being carefull not to wake any of the kids. She didn't know much about Vincent's mutation, but she did know that he required very little sleep, at least, in the other dimension, so chances were he was already up.  
  
"Bad dreams, huh?" she was surprised by Vincent's voice on the last step on the stairs.  
  
"What... what makes you think that?" Marianne turned to see him coming out of the livingroom.  
  
"Not, well, now. It's in your eyes," he switched the light on, Marianne realised too late that he would be able to see her scars.  
  
"Memories of not so long ago," she gestured, "they're not from a lab, if that's what you think. Most do, you know, most people think that. But they're not."  
  
"Then who did it?" she heard Vincent ask as she momentarily relived the vortex.  
  
"Not who, what. It was a fight, and it was not," her voice choked up slightly, but she was well aware that Michael was now silently standing at the top of the stairs. She didn't know how he did it, but he always seemed aware of the fact that she was up.  
  
"It was an entity, no more then a child, like the ones who live here, really, it meant no harm, but it was gonna kill an entire dimension, kill thousands of beings in another. And I, I wasn't in control. My body was not my own, I was part of something so much bigger," she heard Michael walk down the stairs, but couldn't stop herself from talking.  
  
"It hurt, as if every piece of my skin was scraped from my body, reattached and done again. I don't know how I staid sane, but I know Michael was a part of it, and the strength of the entity I was One with. It was in a space between dimensions, in a space that was destroyed with the Other. I killed it when I swore I would never kill again," Marianne was well aware that Michael was hugging her to him.  
  
"And my mutation is not helping. It won't let me forget, play what happened over and over again in my mind when I sleep, lets me fail and lets me see the others dead," she shivered.  
  
Michael gently guided her commpletely down the stairs and settled her down in his lap as he sat in a kitchen chair.  
  
They sat silent for a while, Marianne resting her head against Michael's shoulder, traces of invisible tears on her face, Michael's eyes were closed, even though he was fully awake and Vincent sat thinking.  
  
"I think," Vincent finally spoke up, "you give yourself too little credit. I believe that Michael would be the first to agree with me that you're probably one of the strongest people you can get. I've heard of plenty of docs who went insane after having treated half as many people like you did, and who are a lot older then you. You're strong, yet you stay to wallow in the darkness you created for yourself."  
  
"Because I deserve it," Marianne replied softly, she felt Michael go rigid with shock, "I killed six, six lives. Broke them with hands that were supposed to heal."  
  
"I'm not saying it's allright to kill," Vincent spoke softly, "but if you let it haunt you like that, you'll go crazy, no matter how strong you are."  
  
Marianne looked at him, unshed tears shining in her eyes, showing that no matter what she had seen and done, she still was a vulnerable girl, a girl who grew up never having to fight, and now fought for all she was worth.  
  
She knew that Vincent had been through more then she had been, and he had had no choice. She knew he was right, like Michael was right. But she was tired, so tired, and quietly fell asleep, leaving the two men to talk.  
  
"Thanks, Vincent," Michael smiled tiredly at the younger man, "you're a smart guy."  
  
"I try," the one spoken to grinned, "she'll have it tough for a while longer, it'll never leave her, but it will grow less painfull for her."  
  
"I understand. She's a special girl, tough and forgiving. I don't think anyone else could have done a better job at what she does then she herself. Anne, I never expected to feel for a girl like her, but if someone ever lays a finger on her, they'll wish they would be run over by a train instead of being killed by me," the grim expression on Michael's face proved that he was speaking the truth.  
  
"I can imagine," Vincent nodded, before getting up, "I'll start breakfast. Real quiet." 


	5. Two more old faces

Agent-G: Thanks for the review, here's the next one, I survived exam-week, but I'll have to re-take my math exam, because I flunked it, along with physics, but that's a lost cause.  
  
A/N: the phonecall will be explained in the next story in Mutant Underground Universe, Jake and Jill are also owned by Agent-G  
  
A/N: Mary and Ben also belong to Agent-G.  
  
A rant for the interrested: allright, I only have to retake two exams, math and physics, and both don't necesarily have to be taken for me to pass this year. But that idiotic school of mine failed to put a correct grade on my chart, which led to an insufficient on my chart. I have been bugging and asking them about it for half a year and it still isn't fixed! Allright, then we get the cavelries, may sound childish: my dad. My parents are cool, they actually believe me when I say I couldn't help it. They rock, not a point of discussion. So my dad, don't ask me, he's good at this, actually badgered school into a promise they'll have it fixed by tomorrow. That's when there is a board meeting about who passes this year and who doesn't, and believe you me, a lot are failing this year. But I only get to find it out next week or something when I get my final chart. I am so glad next year will be my last at this crummy place they dare to call a school. I almost didn't pass because of their mistake! If I had an insufficient for math, they would have held me back, while all my other grades or pretty damn good! takes a deep breath Thanks to anyone who stuck by me through this rant. I just had to let it all out on an unsuspecting public.

* * *

**_Vacation - Two more old faces  
_**  
Michael was standing in the opening of the door, looking at Marianne on the phone, she was up to something, he could feel it in his toes.  
  
"So we'll pick them up this afternoon, yes, I know they're having difficulty, just tell them I have someone here who they'd like to meet," she said, before letting out a short laugh at something said on the other line, but soon turned serious again: "you're sure about that? Yes, ofcourse, I'm sorry, I know that. That won't be enough, we need more then just that. No, you're doing a great job, but you'll get them here?"  
  
After a few more seconds, the conversation ended and Marianne hung up.  
  
"Desiree," she told Michael whom she had been calling, "Jake and Jill will be coming here. They were having too much trouble adapting with her, the Vincent from the other dimension helped them a lot."  
  
"One day," Michael sighed, "one day, Anne, you'll figure out you can't take care of everyone."  
  
"Let's just hope that day is far, FAR away," she grinned mischeviously, quickly kissing him.  
  
"And the other part?" Michael asked frowning.  
  
"Not good," she shook her head, her face sobering for a second.  
  
"Damn!" Michael turned his head slightly and cursed.  
  
"Baby, we'll be ready, we can take it, we just need to stick together," she turned his head so that he had to face her, smiling encouragingly, "now, we have," she looked at her watch, "one hour before they get it. It'll take us about 15 minutes to get to the drop-off spot with the van, which leaves us 45 minutes to ourselves."  
  
"Why," Michael grinned, "am I always planning those missions while you do it without breaking a sweat."  
  
"Because you're jealous," Marianne turned her nose up into the air and mock-sniffed, "and I prefer to plan treatments rather then break-ins, break-outs and whatever you do."  
  
"Yes, I'm a rotten jealous man," he joked, "and why haven't you called the Professor to try and get Rogue here? I would be thinking you wanted to get her together with Vincent."  
  
Marianne rolled her eyes and turned away, before turning back to him: "It would be much more fun if they'd meet at our wedding. Besides, need I remind you of the horror stories Kitty told us when Rogue found out about them trying to play matchmaker for her and Remy? I'm sorry, but I don't wanna be one of her victims."  
  
It was now late morning, after the night Marianne had woken up from her nightmare, once again. Breakfast had been spend getting to know the kids in the relocation house. They already knew C, Rick, the 15 year old, wasn't a mutant, he carried the gene, but it wasn't active. The two other kids hadn't shown their powers, but probably would in the coming years. The eldest one of the two was Lisa, a twelve year old girl with a never leaving frown, near white blonde hair and grey eyes. The younger one was her little sister, Kate, who looked just like her three year older sister, but had a sweet grin and a tendency to make a mess. As it turned out their parents were mutants, and had 'disappeared' five years ago. Which meant that they were either dead or still somewhere in a lab. For their sake, Marianne hoped they were dead, nothing was worse then a lab, she had learned that with her patients.  
  
Vincent ran the relocation-house with a young woman. That was nearly always the case, Underground wanted the children to have a 'mother' and a 'father' figure. The woman's name was Elizabeth, but Vincent had advised on calling her Liz, if they ever wanted to survive meeting her. Liz was currently on a much deserved vacation, which had left Vincent alone in charge of the four kids.  
  
Well, not exactly alone, apparently two friends of his, Benny and Mary, always helped out. Benny with the technical stuff and Mary with the finances and supplies. Which Marianne thought was quite an accomplishment, a house with four, soon six, growing kids in them!  
  
"Vincent, could we talk to you for a minute? In private?" Michael interrupted Vincent telling C just exactly why it was a very bad idea to balance on a wobbly chair in order to climb onto the kitchen-counter, to get into the cabinet and get some cookies out of a glass jar.  
  
"Huh? O yeah, sure, C, if I catch you on that chair again, you're grounded to your room, understood?" Vincent nodded to them, before turning back to C.  
  
"Yes Vince," C nodded, pouting, before taking of.  
  
"Now, what did you wanted to talk to me about?" Vincent now turned his full attention to Marianne and Michael.  
  
"We told you about the Vincent from the other reality, right?" Marianne sat down at the table, folding her hands into a cup where she could rest her hand in.  
  
"Yes, what about him... me...?" Vincent took a seat himself.  
  
"He helped us out a great deal with two kids, twins, a girl and a boy. They got evacuated along with everyone else, and since we didn't know if you actually existed in our dimension, let alone be with Mutant Underground, we couldn't have them sent to you," Michael began.  
  
"But now you know and they're coming here?" Vincent interrupted.  
  
"It was very little choice," Marianne carried on, "they didn't adapt to the situation with another relocation, having them back at the safehouse isn't what you would say recommendable. If our safehouse would be attacked," she held up a hand to stop Michael from saying something she was betting went along the lines of 'like that will ever happen'.  
  
"I told you, Michael, you are not supposed to say that, Last time you said something like that, we ended up in another dimension," she told him sternly.  
  
Vincent looked, slightly confused, from first Marianne to Michael before shrugging.  
  
"I already have Underground agreeing to give you extra funding to house two more children," Marianne continued calmly, sitting up straight and foling her hands in her lap, "they need a place, and the only real connection they ever made was with you... err... Vincent from the other dimension."  
  
"We still have room, they can come here," Vincent nodded, smiling slightly, "when will they arrive?"  
  
Marianne quickly glanced at her watch to find that she and Michael should be leaving right then to pick Jake and Jill up.  
  
"In fifteen minutes," she jumped up, "Michael and me will pick them up."  
  
She grabbed MIchael by the arm and dragged him to the van.  
  
"Calm! Leave my arm in place, I like my limbs where they are now!" he objected against it.  
  
"Wuss," was her only reply.  
  
= - At the pick-up spot - =  
  
"Marianne!" the said doctor heard as soon as she got out of the van and smiled: Jill, the girl had been a bit more open then then the boy.  
  
"I missed you two," Marianne smiled at them, nodding at the one who had dropped them off that he could go, "and do I have a surprise for you two."

* * *

A/N: I'm getting the hang of it again, ain't I? 


	6. Heading out

Agent-G: Heh, Marianne is thinking they'll meet at the wedding, what I am thinking might be completely different (insert evil cackle here). Yeah, I liked that part too with the chair and all, but that was purely on accident, I was just typing and suddenly it said that! Getting school to fix mistakes is pain stakingly hard work, they seem to have this complex that makes them think they're better then anyone else.  
  
RedWitch: thanks, I liked that one-shot too. And yeah, I've been busy with math-exam and physics. I passed math, dunno 'bout physics yet, though. And I wasn't planning on stopping writing, I love it too much.

* * *

_**Vacation - Heading out**_  
  
Michael hated this. Marianne and saying goodbye. He hated it. Well, that and C cutting of the circulation to his leg. Yup, that was right there up the list with the non-likes. The little girl had her arms wrapped tightly just below his left knee. Really, very nice. Feelings leaving his leg? Yup, most certainly. If this went on any longer, he would be in need of Marianne in professional capacity. Nice.  
  
"Goodbye Vincent," Michael led out a breath in relief: finally!  
  
"We'll be in touch, and if you need something, you have my cell-phone number, allright?" Marianne asked Vincent, she had already said goodbye to everyone else. It was now in the afternoon, the same day that Jake and Jill had arrived.  
  
Vincent nodded, grinning, obviously aware of Michael's promblem and enjoying the look on the older man's face. As Marianne turned around, she finally became aware of Michael's predicament and let out a bubble of laughter.  
  
"O dear, C, don't do that. Michael isn't a teddybear," she giggled while prying the child's arms off of he fianc's leg, Michael just grumbled.  
  
"But I don't want you to go," C pouted, trying to latch onto Marianne now, but Marianne carefully avoided that.  
  
"Sweetie, you know we can't do that," Marianne smiled at the girl.  
  
"Yes, but I don't like it!" C crossed her arms as Michael moved his leg to get the blood flowing again, noting for future reference that little girls had too much strength then was healthy for them.  
  
After five more minutes of explaining to C why she couldn't come along, which ended when Rick had her in a hold so she wouldn't cause any more problems.  
  
So after five more minutes, Marianne and Michael were well on their way to Devon and his wife. Which had Michael very nervous.  
  
"Michael? I... eh... forgot to tell you something," Marianne suddenly said, twiddling her thumbs.  
  
"This can't be good. Is this the 'I forgot to tell you that Ben blew up a can of acid' or is another 'I forgot to tell you'?" he groaned, knowing fully well that after that sentence, there usually came some bad news.  
  
"Not the acid, I still quite vividly remember that accident," Marianne joked, "but you're still not going to like it. My dad, he's visiting Devon at the moment."  
  
Very bad news.  
  
Michael had never met Marianne's father, but he knew Marianne cared a lot about her father. It still didn't explain why he nearly never called, or always was out of town when Marianne wanted to see him. Michael didn't like it one bit. Overprotective brother? He could handle that, at least Michael knew for sure that Devon cared about his sister, something he doubted about her father. He never told Marianne about that, but she knew he didn't like her dad.  
  
Quietly, face stern, Michael pulled the car over on the side of the road and turned to look at her: "And you have known this for...?"  
  
"Since yesterday," she smiled weakly at him.  
  
"And you were planning to tell me...?"  
  
"Now?" an even weaker smile.  
  
Michael groaned and rested his head against the steering wheel: this was not happening. This was not happening. Allright. This was happening. Someone up there really hated him. Over protective brother, he could deal with, but a father who he had never met but already harboured a strong dislike towards? No... he didn't think so.  
  
"It's not that bad," Marianne tried.  
  
"You know I don't like him, Marianne, he didn't come to see you when he heard you were still alive, he wasn't there for your graduation. The longest conversation you've had with him since he knew this has been what? Two minutes? On the phone," he looked at her from the corner of his eyes and saw her bite her bottom lip.  
  
"He's just... it is hard on him, alright? He lost his wife, his daughter almost died, turned out to be a mutant, joined the X-Men, almost got killed on a mission and then two years later he hears his daughter isn't dead," Marianne rattled of excuses for him.  
  
Michael shook his head: did she still believe that? Sometimes that tendency of hers to try and see the best in people was very tiresome.  
  
"And look at it this way, now you can meet him face to face and form your opinion about him," Marianne tried again.  
  
"And if I hate him even more?"  
  
"If you prove there is ground to not like my father and I agree with you on that, I'll never try to get you to meet him again," Marianne promised him after a moment of thought. She looked saddened by the fact that Michael didn't like her father before meeting him.  
  
"Hey," Michael noticed this and turned the engine off, "I just don't understand why he wouldn't want to see you, any father would be proud to have a daughter like you."  
  
"Flatterer," Marianne muttered, but smiling again. Satisfied, Michael started the engine again, but with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomache.  
  
Marianne herself also wasn't feeling too well about this. She had covered her scars so no one would see them, if they didn't see them, they wouldn't ask questions about things they didn't need to know and they wouldn't blame Michael.  
  
Her father, Marianne let out a plopping breath, somewhere, she didn't really look forward to seeing him again, that part of her told her that Michael was right about him. But she couldn't give in to that part, could she? He was her father, after all. No, Michael was right in a lot of things, but in this he was mistaken. He had to be mistaken.  
  
The landscape flashed by them, as the drive was silent. Marianne looked out the window, a part of her exited and a part of her wanting to jump out of the car. Michael himself was fighting the urge to turn the car around and drive in a whole different direction. 


	7. That went well

Agent-G: interesting would be a very correct desription of what it would be when they meet the family. And with C, you'll just have to wait, eh?  
  
Fire Inu: am I in it now? checks Yes, I'm now on your author-alert.  
  
**_A/N_**: this is basically a short piece in between, just to have Marianne and Michael be ready for what happends in my next story with them. I think compared to the rest of the series, this is a rather light piece. The next story after this one will be a bit... err... heavy.  
  
_**A/N**_: Agent-G is doing a story based on Mutant Underground series, I'd suggest you'd read it. It's very good.

* * *

_**Vacation - That went well  
**_  
The nervous feeling in the pit of Marianne's stomache worsened as they drew closer to her brother's place, she felt down right sick when the van pulled over there and the engine stopped. She got out, to immediately find herself in a bearhug from her brother, who she hadn't seen for a long time.  
  
"Devon!" she choked out, "airsupply, cutting of, lemme go!"  
  
'Leave it to my brother to nearly strangle me on accident,' Marianne dryly thought to herself as Devon let go of her.  
  
"It's so good to see you again," the next thing Marianne knew, she was being hugged by Bridget, Devon's wife. It must have been hugging day or something, Marianne later decided.  
  
"It's good to see you too, Bridget, you're happy here with my brother?" Marianne smiled happily, not aware that Michael, in the mean time was shooting mental daggers at her father, who was returning them just as hard.  
  
"Extremely," Bridget giggled, "I heard you were very busy in the USA, something about working to help other mutants?"  
  
"Yes, very busy," Marianne smiled, "but Michael and me are on vacation now. We would have gotten here sooner, but we ran into someone we knew, we spend the night there."  
  
She kept quiet about C and all, she would really have loved to take the little girl with her back to the USA, but it wasn't safe enough yet. Perhaps when they had taken care of certain things, she told herself, they could pick her up there. For now, Marianne just hoped that Vincent kept her safe. She knew he would do everything he could, but still.  
  
"And... ehm... Michael and I have an anouncement to make, but we'll do that inside, allright?" Marianne fidgetted a little under the look her father gave her.  
  
Devon nodded and everyone entered the small house that belonged to Devon and Bridget. Marianne shrugged off her jacket in the hall before walking further inside, closely followed by Michael, she could feel he was nervous about this too. It was odd, Marianne thought, he was about two years younger then her brother and she was closing in on her 23. They were still nervous. Perhaps it was the age difference, even though it was just four years.  
  
"What was the announcement?" Marianne's father asked her as soon as everyone had gathered in the main room.  
  
Marianne looked nervously up at Michael, he nodded at her, making clear he would tell them about their engagement.  
  
"Marianne and I are engaged," Michael simply stated, causing Marianne to wince: so much for a tactful approach with massive diplomacy.  
  
"Micheal. Talk. Now." Devon stated in short, bitten out sentences, before turning on his heels and stalking out to the back yard.  
  
"Good luck, if you survive," Marianne ushered Devon after him, when she turned, however, she came face to face with her father, who obviously also had a few things to say about it.  
  
"I'll go make sure Devon doesn't kill Michael, I'm very happy for you two," Bridget whispered to her, before sneaking out herself after Devon.  
  
"Are you certain about this... man?" her father looked at her.  
  
"Yes, I love Michael very much, and those feelings are more then returned. I am very certain," Marianne looked at her father, a smile on her face, Raymond was his name.  
  
"I won't stand for it," Raymond suddenly stated after a moment of silence, looking sternly at his daughter, "I stood aside when you wanted to work as a doctor for that... that organization while you could have done so much more."  
  
"What? Dad? What would I have become? I am a known mutant, dad. No hospital would hire me. This way, I can do something for people who weren't as lucky in life as I am. Tell me, how can I become more then this?" Marianne interrupted him, not understanding how he, her father, could act like this.  
  
"I admire your drive to help others, but to throw your life away like this," he held his hand up to stop Marianne from interrupting him again, "I understand that if you see something in him, then he must be good, but I also understood from our conversations that what he does is dangerous. And by that he is willingly putting you in danger. I'm sorry, but I can't stand by and watch you marry someone like that."  
  
"I can't believe this," Marianne first moved to turn away from Raymond, but then whipped her head around to look at him bith barely with held anger and contempt.  
  
"I can't believe this," she repeated, "you all but disappeared from my life and now you have the nerve to tell me I can't marry the man I love more then my own life? That he is reckless and egoistic?! You have no right..." her voice shook a little as she paused for breath, "You have no right to give your opinion in this and expect for me to take it into full consideration. You have no idea... No idea what we have been through, your sanity wouldn't survive a day of what I go through. Do you know how I survive? How my sanity survives? Michael. When he has his arms around me, I'm safe, no one can get me, when he's with me, I'm strong."  
  
"You're just a child," Raymond refused to relent to his daughter.  
  
"No, I stopped being a child when my power surfaced. Granted, I still had a lot of growing to do, but now I see reality, while you see this limited part of just your world that consist out of business and traveling. I grew up dad, I'm no longer that awkward teenager, I'm a doctor and I know damned well what I want and who I need and that is Michael. And if you can't accept that, then we... we have nothing else to say to eachother anymore. You have my phone number, call me when you decide to be rational," Marianne was seething, though a part of her understood her father's wish to protect her from losing a loved one early in life. But couldn't he see that it was her choice?  
  
- = With Devon = -  
  
"You think I'm going to stand by and watch Marianne marry you... why?" Devon looked coldly at Michael.  
  
"Because that's what she wants and you won't stand in her way. You didn't have trouble with me dating her," Michael looked at the older man, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
"Humor me," Devon smirked, "what makes you think you're good enough for her?"  
  
"I'm not," Michael shook his head, "but she loves me and I love her. If I'd lose her..." he shuddered nearly unnoticably, remembering just how close he had got to losing her. Devon noticed this, however, but contributed it to Michael imagening what it would be like without Marianne.  
  
"Allright, then I expect an invite to the wedding, and if I heard you made her unhappy in any way possible, I will personally skin you alive, mutant or no mutant," Devon said light heartedly, but his eyes said clearly he wouldn't think twice about fullfilling the just delivered threat.  
  
Michael was just about to reply as Marianne came storming out.  
  
"Devon, I'm sorry, but we can't stay here any longer. Father and I are not seeing eye to eye on my engagement. Michael, we're leaving," Marianne said, looking very, very mad. Before anyone could say anything, she was already inside the van.  
  
"I'm sorry," Michael said to them as he moved to get into the van too, it was no point argueing with Marianne on this, "I'll get her to call you when she has calmed down."  
  
Devon only nodded, smiling sadly as Bridget was uttering complaints and several threats towards her father-in-law. Michael waved at them before starting the van and driving off. Marianne looking just as sad at her brother, already feeling bad for her outburst, but her pride not allowing her to turn back.  
  
"Dad disagreed with our engagement, he said he wouldn't stand for it," Marianne said after a while, "we had an arguement. I said that when he decided to be rational, we could talk again."  
  
Michael didn't know what to say to that, and put one of his hands over Marianne's, squeezing them gently: "Everything will be allright. He'll call."  
  
Marianne sniffled slightly: "it's odd, I thought I'd feel worse after this, but I only feel kinda disappointed, not even surprised. How did it go with Devon?"  
  
"He threatened to skin me alive if I made you unhappy," Michael said with a chuckle, not mentioning that he had been about to say that there would be a very long line for that if it should happen, Michael himself the first one of that line.  
  
It was quiet for a while, untill Marianne giggled: "That went well. But I must say, it felt very good when you told them we were engaged."


	8. Ways not to wake Michael

Agent-G: o my, I did not really have to hear that bit of 'dark' and 'most violent'. And about what they are doing, I'm wrapping this story up, because I have the entire first chapter of the next story in the Underground series typed out in my head.

* * *

**_Vacation - Ways not to wake Michael_**  
  
It had been a while after the arguement with Marianne's father, but it surprised Michael a bit that Marianne actually took it rather well. Then again, she hadn't seen him since before her coma, he hadn't really been 'in the picture' for a long time. They had been driving for two hours straight now, but they would stop for the night and then head to the Institute to see the X-Men. After that, they would head home.  
  
At current, they were in a motel room, Marianne had simply refused to spend the night in the van.  
  
"They did what?!" Michael heard Marianne call out from the bedroom. She was calling the safehouse.  
  
"I can't believe it. The entire training room?! Exploded as in 'boom' or exploded as in overloaded? Aha, no, boom. Allright. Was anyone hurt? No, aside from them, o, that's good," she lowered the phone to talk to Michael, "Luka says Tank and Sarah had a go at the Training room, it went boom on them, a bit."  
  
"How much is a bit?" Michael replied, while digging through his suitcase, trying to find some clean clothes.  
  
"Ben has to make a whole new set of drones, a few of the programs were lost and there are a few new cracks in the entire South wall of the house."  
  
Michael groaned, that had been a very big 'boom', as Marianne put it. The entire house was reinforced to withstand a whole lot of abuse.  
  
"Any new refugees? Just two? Yes, I know two are still too much, but compared to a couple of months ago... No, we're not at Devon's now. My father was there, he didn't take my engagement to Michael that well," a giggle at something Luka said on the other side, "yes, I guess that's where I got my stubborn side from. I pretty much told him to shove it. In more pleasant words. I think I said, that we would talk again when he decided to be rational."  
  
Marianne lay on her stomache across the bed, phone in one hand while sketching something with her free hand, Michael heard her giggle about something Luka said, later quip back at the other doctor on something. She looked carefree and just like any woman her age should be, no worries about people needing her help, no worries about losing people she loved and not the darkness in her eyes caused by grief over her actions. Although that darkness had lightened ever since this trip had started, it was almost gone now.  
  
"Bye Luka, take care of the rest and tell them I miss 'm and love 'm," Marianne finally winded the conversation down, when she hung up, she turned onto her back and studied the ceiling with a slight frown on her face.  
  
"Something wrong?" Michael asked her, seeing the frown.  
  
"I'm going to ask professor Xavier if he can temporarily host Connor, Ezra, Samantha and Jonathan again. Just untill everything settles down again in Underground. And have them spend some time with more kids of their age. I heard Xavier is putting together a whole school for mutant kids, it would be good for them," she raised her head to look at Michael, but ended up twisting her head in such an odd angle that it would be better to just sit up straight. Ofcourse that wouldn't do either, so she ended up crawling into Michael's lap.  
  
"We'll be fine, right, Michael?" Marianne asked him after a while.  
  
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't we be fine?"  
  
"With getting married and all, when we're old and grey. the future. Will we keep leading the safehouse? Or will we do something else later?" Marianne asked, not asking one question, but they both knew it was still there: would they survive to be old and grey?  
  
"I'd be lying if I said we wouldn't have a couple of rough spots, but we've had them before, and we've dealt with them. And being married, I don't see much change, the only thing that will change will be that we will be officially together," he wrapped his arms around her waist.  
  
They sat like that for a while, just enjoying eachother's company, being close, but as the sky darkened, they grew tired and turned in for the night.  
  
- = Next day = -  
  
"Up up up!" Marianne all but dragged Michael out of bed, and according too him, far too early. His half muttered, sleepy threats towards her to leave him alone turned into loud curses as she threw him into a bath and turned on the water.  
  
"What was that for?!" he finally managed to get out, after escaping the unwanted shower.  
  
"I told you an hour ago that I wanted to go and have a look around. You said, and I quote 'in a minute, go have breakfast'. I went to have breakfast and you were fast asleep when I got back, fifteen minutes ago. I told you then that if you didn't get up withing fifteen minutes, I would throw you into the bath and turn the water on, and when I checked back just now, you were still asleep," Marianne grinned, but meanwhile back slowly away as she noticed the mad glint in his eyes that only could be defined as 'I'm gonna get even with you now'.  
  
"You're gonna get it now," Michael warned, an evil grin forming on his face, causing Marianne to 'eep' and make a mad dash to the door and run outside, followed closely by Michael.  
  
It didn't take long for Michael to tackle her, but had already forgiven her his awakening, their resulted tumble to the ground only led to a loud laughing ringing across the morning land. Possibly waking the other guests of the motel.  
  
"Uhm, Michael, you do realise you're only wearing a soaked sweat pants?" Marianne asked him after a moment, bearly withholding her laughter.  
  
"I thought it was a bit cold, stay right there," Michael turned slightly red, before running back inside, leaving Marianne laughing uncontrolably, before scrambling to her feet and following Michael inside.  
  
"I called Desiree too," she said, plopping down onto the bed, "and Sidney, he says we should get back to the safehouse as soon as we can. The plans are speeding up and he'd prefer to have us in place when things start happening."  
  
Michael nodded, pulling on the T-Shirt: "Do we still have time to drop by professor Xavier and the others?"  
  
"Yeah, we have to anyway, I have to tell the professor and the others in charge of the Institute what to do when it starts happening. It's not just Mutant Underground that will be destroyed if we fail," Marianne told him.  
  
They had started finding 'oddities' about two weeks before Michael and Marianne had left for their vacation. When they called Sidney, who was one of the founders of Mutant Underground, and Desiree, who was in charge of the part of Underground that was in South America and put the pieces together, they could only come to one conclusion: treachery, at least, that was what everything pointed to, but all the evidence was vague at best. It was frustrating, Sidney had tried to get the other founders to believe them, but they didn't, contributing it to that Michael and Marianne wore suffering from stress caused by what they had faced. This forced them to operate even more secretive, because if the founders discovered what they were doing, they would be put on inactive duty, permanently. No one of the 'conspirators' wanted this.  
  
They couldn't go full out against the traitors either, because they only had a few labeled, and not one of the leaders. It was a frustrating situation, but during their vacation, Michael and Marianne had forced their thoughts away from the issue. But now the end of their vacation was drawing near, their thoughts were drawn back to what they were trying to save.  
  
The plan they had was simple, to save as many as they could, no one had the illusion everyone would come out of this one alive. They could only try.  
  
"I know, Anne, will the professor agree to do what we will ask of him?" Michael pulled the suitcases together to carry to the van.  
  
"Yes, he will, and probably more then just evacuate to the houses Sidney put up," Marianne said, her confidence in her friends showing in her face and she took her own suitcases. She hated it when people tried to do things for her that she could very well do herself.  
  
Michael grinned at that. It was one of the things he loved about her. People were easily fooled by her appearance as that of a gentle mannered doctor, but she was far from helpless. He left her fummbling with her stuff as he made his way to the van, there was no way he would endanger his sleepingspot next to her if he helped her out.   
  
"Whatcha grinning at?" Marianne asked him, slightly out of breath after winning her battle with the suitcases that hadn't been so intend on getting into the van.  
  
"Me?" Michael tried to look inocent, "I'm just a happy person!"  
  
"Yes, and I'm really a super-model," she quipped, while closing the door, "Well? What are you waiting for? Step on it!"


	9. At the mansion

Agent-G: yeah, it was going to be a shorty, I had this only planned as a preparation for the new story. But look at it this way: if I get that story started, you know what happends in my story, and you don't have to worry about tangling things up. wink  
  
StArRy1233: thanks for the comment on my writing. Most of them are my own characters, lessee if I can name all my OC's: Marianne(Fantasy), Michael(Gun), C, Ben(Nova), Sarah(Gaia), Tank, Luka, Desiree, Sidney, Rick, Lisa, Kate, Liz. Vincent, Mary, Benny, Jack and Jill belong to Agent-G. Wow, lotsa OC's...

* * *

_**Vacation - At the mansion**_  
  
Marianne looked up at the mansion with silent surprise. She had heard they had been adding buildings to it, but seeing the changed mansion was a whole different thing. So many new things, but also a lot of old things.  
  
The van stopped and Marianne already saw her friends waiting for her.  
  
"Hi guys!" Marianne cheered, noting the younger people who curiously poked their heads out of the top windows, "Students?"  
  
"Ja," Kurt nodded, bammfing over to Marianne, "how vas your vacation?"  
  
"O, it was great, we ran into an old friend, saw a lot of road and trees, had a fight with my dad, terrific," Marianne smiled broadly at him.  
  
"Fahght with yer dad? 'Bout what?" Rogue asked her curiously.  
  
"About my choice in marriage. Please, I don't want to talk about it again," Marianne said a bit stiffly, "I see there were made a lot of changes. I'd like to see everything, if that's allright. Perhaps we should consider putting up schools like this. But first, I need to talk with professor Xavier, in private."  
  
Marianne's tone indicated that it was a serious matter, so no one stood in her way as she marched to Xavier's office, although she did recieve a few curious glances from students that just happened to be outside. As she raised her hand to knock, Xavier told her to come in, through the door.  
  
"It's good to see you again, professor," Marianne smiled as she entered, "I must say I was quite surprised to see how much the Institute has changed. So many students nowadays."  
  
Quietly she took her seat, opposing professor Xavier.  
  
"But I have something serious to tell you," Marianne took a deep breath, it would be so much easier if Michael would be by her side, but he couldn't. Her mental shielding was strong enough to keep telepaths outside her mind, so she could hold the secrets. Michael could not.  
  
"By the look on your face, it is very serious. Is Underground in trouble?" Xavier asked, worry in his tone.  
  
"Very much so, I fear. Treachery among us, even. We don't know the details, don't have concrete evidence and the founders of Underground don't believe us. I was told to warn you, and only you, because the Instute might also be in danger. One of these days, you will recieve a phone-call from me. I will say three words: Sidney says hi. After that, I will disconnect. When that happends, you have less then a two hours to get everyone from the Institute to this location. It's and island of-coast, belonging to a good friend of mine. Everyone will be save there. Another friend of mine will help get everyone there. He's called Drifter and can transport people over great distances. Across America in five minutes, Rogue knows him," Marianne looked at her mentor, face void of everything, as if she herself couldn't believe she was telling him this.  
  
"I will have the students send there..." Xavier started, only to be interrupted by Marianne.  
  
"No, promise me that you, Storm and Hank go there too. Please. If Underground doesn't get through this, we need you. I know better then to ask you to have the others go there too," Marianne shook her head.  
  
"And what will you do?"  
  
"What I do best, patch things up, but let's hope that it will be far, far away. I also ask of you to only tell this to people who can keep strong telepaths out of their head and whom you trust completely. The founders of Underground believe I have become unstable and paranoid, if they find out by any way that I spoke to you about this, I will be put on permanent inactive duty," she had lowered her head while talking, but now again rasing it to look directly at Xavier.  
  
"I understand," Xavier nodded, keeping his eyes on the young woman in front of him. He still remembered quite clearly how she had come to live with the X-Men as a teenager. She was lucky to have such a caring brother. Marianne had grown quite a bit mentally, he decided, she had become stronger and Xavier realised very well that her life with Underground had done this. If she had remained with the X-Men, she wouldn't nearly have become as strong as she was now.  
  
"On that same subject, can I send Connor, Ezra, Jonathan and Samantha here? It would be better for them to be evacuated along with your students. The island is the safest place," Marianne looked at Xavier with a pleading face.  
  
"Yes, ofcourse they can, I'll have two rooms ready for them. When will they be arriving?" Xavier nodded.  
  
"As soon as I can, probably the day after Michael and I get home. So, how's the super-hero thing coming along?" Marianne suddenly switched topics, without as much as a word of warning.  
  
"Very well," Xavier chuckled.  
  
"You know, perhaps we should get uniforms too," Marianne pretended to think about it, "it seems to work for you guys pretty well."  
  
"Uniforms? What uniforms? I always thought that the concept of uniforms was that everyone dressed alike. I doubt I have ever seen a more varied group of clothing then the X-Men," Xavier smiled.  
  
"Yeah, but still, when they see, let's say, Rogue in her uniform, everyone knows she's with the X-Men, while when Underground goes out on a job, no one recognises us... Now, on second thought, that is good thing. Now, I promised, I think it was Kitty, to show me around. If I know Michael, he'll be down in the Danger Room right now. I think that he missed the trainingroom at the safehouse the most," she rose to her feet and left Xavier's office.  
  
It didn't take her long to find Kitty, she was watching someone dismantling the Danger Room, by the sounds of it, Marianne winced, it was Michael against Logan.  
  
"Who's winning? Michael or Logan?" she asked Kitty.  
  
"I don't know, but I know the Danger Room is losing, big time," Kitty pointed out, "it'll make the students very happy."  
  
"I can imagine," Marianne managed to hold her laughter back, "I still remember how much I hated those sessions. Everytime I had to train, I felt like this huge failure that was waisting mister Logan's time. I really was the worst one at fighting."  
  
"And you always had such colourful complaints about training afterwards," Kitty giggled.  
  
"I'm still pretty colourful," Marianne winked, "anyway, am I getting that tour? If you're too busy, I can go wonder around myself."  
  
"No, I'll come with you," Kitty ambled after Marianne, quickly starting to chatter non-stop.  
  
Marianne absently listened to the talking as she looked around, seeing the new students have fun on the grounds, a girl threatening to paste a boy against the ceiling unless he stopped doing 'that'. Marianne didn't know what 'that' was, but she could imagine that the boy had pulled a prank on the girl. It remembered her of Bobby.  
  
How long did they have left? How long untill she was forced to say those three words? Sidney says hi.  
  
Marianne shook her head slightly: it wasn't time to worry about that now.  
  
"You'll be staying here the night, right?" Kitty suddenly asked her, "You're room is taken, though, three girls are sharing it. But we have a spare room on the teacher's floor."  
  
"Yes, we'll be staying here, we're leaving again tomorrow. Sarah and Tank are in charge of the safehouse untill we're back."  
  
"Ouch," Kitty winced, "will it be standing when you return?"  
  
"I hope so, for them..." Marianne's tone made it clear that if it wouldn't, Tank and Sarah would be in a whole lot of trouble otherwise.  
  
Later, during dinner, it became obvious that the demise of the Danger Room was a fact, even if it was just for the time being, as Michael got a standing ovation from most of the students when he walked into the dining hall.  
  
"Some things never change," Marianne laughed at Michael's bewildered expression while he sat down at the table.  
  
"Let's just hope there is no reason for it to change," Michael spoke softly, only for her to here as he joined her at the table, quickly mixing up in the conversation going on.


	10. Home

Agent-G: I wouldn't call the Mansion empty either then, I can send you an e-mail what will happen in a rough story line, if you want. And, uhm, about Puppets without Strings, you see, I save all my stories on floppy, because, well, I nicknamed my computer Crash, that should say something. But I kinda lost the one I have Puppets on, which also has the first half of the next chapter in that story, so I'm frantically trying to find it.

* * *

_**Vacation - Home**_  
  
There was no place like home, Marianne knew that now for sure. The mansion had been nice to see again, but the, already, worn down house of the safehouse, seeing that back was amazing. She was at home, finally.  
  
Saying goodbye to her friends at the Institute had been long, and in Michael's opinion nearly endless.  
  
But Marianne had realised very well now that her home was no longer the Institute with the X-Men, what she remembered of it was long gone. Times change, she knew that, homes changed.  
  
"Marianne! Thank god you're back. If you're ever leaving with Michael again, please! Please! Take me with you!" Luka came running towards the van.  
  
"I think Tank and Sarah have shown just how mature they are," Michael chuckled as he remained inside the van.  
  
"But when I called last time, it was just the trainingroom," Marianne recalled the conversation in her head.  
  
"How much time was in between that and now?" he raised an eyebrow, looking at her.  
  
"Enough," Marianne swallowed painfully, before getting out of the van, "What did they do, Luka?"  
  
"Driving me insane," the woman groaned, "Ever since I told them you guys were heading home, they've been acting like children! Fighting about everything, disagreeing on how to go on missions. Honestly, Connor had to pull the apart. Ben has locked himself in the lab two days ago, should I go on?"  
  
"Please don't," she had even Michael wincing with her summary.  
  
"Time to pull the 'mom/dad' act back together, Michael, I'll get Ben and Sarah, you get Tank," Marianne grinned broadly, speeding of to get Ben out of his lab and to find Sarah.  
  
"She'll never admit it, but she loves it," Michael sighed, before following Marianne into the house and going to look for Tank.  
  
It didn't take long before Marianne had found Sarah, she was in her gardens. Marianne tapped Sarah's back, already having her 'You're in sooooo much trouble'-face in place, causing Sarah to gulp, loudly.  
  
"You're coming with me. Now. We're going to have a very serious talk," Marianne grinned, a slightly twisted glint in her eyes, making clear she had already thought up a punishment.  
  
After that, it was Ben's turn to be found.  
  
"Ben! Open that freakin' door or you can stay there for as long as this house is standing. I swear!" Marianne said, pounding on the, with steel enforced door. After the last explosion, and fire afterwards, they decided they needed to not only have the trainingroom extra-enforced, but also Ben's workplace, and to keep the drones under a very strong lock and key ever since Ben's mistake in programming them.  
  
A rummbling sound on the otherside, followed by the door slowly opening, Marianne groaned as she saw Ben's appearance. Dirty, completely, utterly covered in dirt, a lot of singed part of his clothes and she wasn't even beginning about his hair.  
  
"You're coming with me, and after that, you're going to take a ten-hour bath," Marianne waved her hand in front of her nose: he smelled awfull too.  
  
"Just lemme..." Ben trailed of as he saw the look on Marianne's face, "shut something of?"  
  
After about an hour, Marianne and Michael had a list of damages, destructions, new refugees and Tank and Sarah sitting together in an otherwise, completely, empty room.  
  
Ben was now, once more, clean and smelled a whole lot more pleasant then before. As it had turned out, he had been tinkering around with a device that would be able to do what Drifter, better known as Joey, who had got Marianne and Michael together, could do with his power. Which meant that they would have a very fast transportation system, if it worked. Which it didn't. Yet.  
  
Now, however, Marianne and Michael faced a crisis: telling the kids they would be moved out for the time being. The feeble, half lie, that they needed to be around other kids their age, was not accepted, Samanthe had resorted to pouting and stamping her feet, Jonathan acted as if he didn't care, Ezra was sniffling in a corner and Connor, well, he knew there was a very serious reason, so he sided with the adults.  
  
Sam's emotional black-mail, however, was taken care of when Marianne called Jean and had her promise the girl that she would take care of her. Same thing went with Ezra and Ororo. Which left them with Jonathan, who had got more angry by the minute, and ended up yelling that they just wanted to get rid of them, followed by him storming to his room and slamming the door.  
  
"I'll take care of it," Marianne quickly stopped Michael from going after the boy, before marching there herself.  
  
"Jonathan?" she knocked on the door.  
  
"Go away!"  
  
"Flash, please," she knocked again, "we don't want to get rid of any of you."  
  
"Tell that to C!" the angry boy yelled back.  
  
Marianne winced at the mention of the little girl they had left at Vincent's: "I promise we'll try to get C to come live with us again. But we had no choice in sending her to a relocation house, you four are under my custody, C wasn't."  
  
Some shuffling noises, followed by Jonathan opening the door to his room: "Promise?"  
  
"Yes, I promise, and you know I keep them. Can I come in now?" she smiled at him, Jonathan nodded and let her enter his room. Marianne cringed at the mess.  
  
"Yeah yeah, I'm cleanin' it as soon as I can," Jonathan shrugged, noticing Marianne's cringe.  
  
"Good. Look at it this way, you get to torment Scott again, I'm sure Kurt and Bobby still haven't grown up so you'll get to learn some new pranks to wreck havoc onto the safehouse," Marianne winked at him, remembering fondly how happy Scott had been that Jonathan had gone home, and how disappointed both pranksters. They had practically taken Jonathan as their apprentice, with Scott as the main victim.  
  
"I can?" he perked up at that, "I mean, you and Michael won't scold me for it?"  
  
"Flash," Marianne chuckled, "when I was still with the X-Men, however short it was, I was one of the group that wondered how far that stick went up. If I remember correctly, Kurt was collecting money to have the stick removed."  
  
- = Next day = -  
  
The leaving of the four kids had been... strenuous, to say the least. Samantha had changed her mind about wanting to leave, and locked herself up in her and Ezra's room. It had taken Jean two hours to talk the child out of the room.  
  
Ezra had disappeared into the garden, leaving Connor and Ororo to look for her, and a girl who could control plant-life hiding in a garden was not easy to find. No matter if you're a strong empath, or a weather goddess.  
  
Then, ofcourse, there had been the ever so charming Jonathan, who had already started to play pranks on Scott, encouraged by Kurt. They had actually got Scott so that his left eyebrow was twitching and the man was constantly looking over his shoulder.  
  
But they were gone now, with the X-Men and, what Marianne and Michael both hoped, safe from whatever that was going to happen with Underground.  
  
"They'll be fine," Marianne whispered as she watched them take off.  
  
"They'll be fine," Michael agreed.  
  
Bothe of them ignored the clenching, nervous feeling that seemed to crush their hearts as they turned to go back inside of the house. They still had many things to do.  
  
.  
  
_**End**_

* * *

The next part in the Underground Universe will handle the upcoming betrayal and will, in result be a tad bit darker and angstier then my normal writing. Who will survive? 


End file.
